Louise Meanwell (Steven Hirsch)
Brian Cashman’s former mistress threw a curveball in the escalating A-Rod steroid scandal today — insisting the third-baseman’s lawyer drop his star client because the Yankees GM spilled secrets to her about steroid use among the Bombers that create a conflict of interest.
Louise Meanwell — who also goes by the last name Neathway and is charged with allegedly extorting $6,000 and trying to get $15,000 more from Cashman during their 2011 affair — is fuming that A-Rod lawyer Joe Tacopina didn’t ask her permission before he signed on to rep the mega-bucks ballplayer.
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In court papers filed in Manhattan, Meanwell demanded Tacopina drop A-Rod, because one of his partners, Stephen Turano, has been representing Meanwell since last year in a separate case in New Jersey.
Meanwell says she paid Turano $10,000 and gave him “intimate details” of her relationship with Cashman and their conversations, and claimed the GM told her he knew about Yankee players’ steroid use but had a “win at any cost attitude” and was “ambivalent’’ to drug use “so long as nothing came back to the Yankee organization.”
Her lawyer, Peter Gleason, said Meanwell, as Cashman’s former lover, could be called to the stand in the A-Rod case.
“Prior to Tacopina, Siegel & Turano PC representing Mr. Alex Rodriguez, [Meanwell] was never contacted nor did [she] give informed consent [so] that Tacopina could represent what could be the differing interests [of Meanwell and Rodriguez,]” Meanwell’s court papers claim.
“You don’t drop a blue-collar client, who has paid a considerable amount of money, for a marquis client coming down the pipe unless you get informed consent,” Gleason said.
Tacopina blasted the filing, saying Meanwell hired Turano’s separate New Jersey firm — not New York-based Tacopina, Seigel & Turano, as her court papers claim — to represent her in a case in the Garden State. Meanwell had a pending case for stalking a Hoboken man when she was arrested for harassing Cashman.
Tacopina also noted that Meanwell was not “dropped” as a client by Turano’s New Jersey firm. He said Turano is still on retainer and Gleason “should not make statements when he does not know the facts of his own case.”
“It’s the most ridiculous motion I’ve ever seen,” Tacopina said. “Even if they had gotten the law firm right, there is no conflict of interest. “
“I don’t represent Brian Cashman, and I clearly don’t represent the Yankees. Their argument makes no sense.”
Meanwell was arrested in February 2012, after her fling with Cashman went south. The scorned side dish is charged with stalking, harassment, stealing and perjury. She is out on bail and due back in court next week.